SA’s border reopening to western regional Victoria on hold after lockdown

South Australia’s move to reopen its border to western regional Victoria is on hold as that state goes into another lockdown.

The South Australian border with Victoria will remain closed, with the whole of that state going into a snap lockdown on Thursday night.

SA had intended to ease restrictions on people coming in from western Victoria but reversed that decision late Thursday. All changes “have been put on hold”, State Co-ordinator and Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said.

“This is an evolving situation and will continue to be monitored,” he said.

Victoria reported six new cases, all acquired in the local community, sparking the seven-day lockdown.

Some of the cases had been in the community while infectious, including a teacher, and there were a large number of contacts and exposure sites, Victorian Premier Dan Andrews said.

Hundreds of anti-lockdown protesters descended on Melbourne’s CBD Thursday night.

At least two flares were lit, with the crowd chanting “no more lockdowns”.

Police made an arrest, with the man shouting: “Leave me alone — I’m a disabled guy.”

SA’s transition committee met on Thursday morning and planned to relax border restrictions with western regional Victoria, but keep a hard border with Greater Melbourne and the rest of the state.

Travellers from western Victorian Local Government Areas would still have been under Level 3 restrictions, which require tests on days one, five and 13 and for the traveller to quarantine until they receive their first negative test result.

However, now all travellers who have been in Victoria are prohibited from entering SA, with exemptions for essential workers, returning South Australians, people moving here and certain individual cases such as those fleeing domestic violence. A border bubble of 70km remains in place.

Meanwhile, two sites at the centre of SA’s Modbury cluster will reopen today.

The Greek on Halifax restaurant in the CBD and Tenafeate Creek Wines in Yattalunga said they felt “devastated” about the Covid-19 outbreak, but thanked the public for their support.

SA Labor urged the state government to establish a new $200m support fund for businesses losing revenue due to ongoing restrictions.

But Treasurer Rob Lucas has indicated further support for businesses and workers would be announced in coming days, following negotiations with the federal government.

“We are well advanced on those discussions and we will announce something in the coming days,” Mr Lucas said. The Treasurer would not reveal the details of the planned support but said the federal government would fund 50 per cent of it once an agreement was reached.

Under Labor’s proposal, struggling businesses would receive daily compensation payments of up to $500, and pubs would have liquor licence fees waived.

“There has been no bigger sacrifice made than by those people who operate within the hospitality industry,” Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said. “They’ve literally had to close their doors and give up their income in the name of everybody else’s safety.”

Labor’s plan includes waiving 2021-22 liquor licence fees, land tax deferrals, payroll tax deferrals and a moratorium on retail and commercial tenant evictions.

Landlords would also get land tax relief, as long as they subsidised lease payments for their tenants.

A new tourism scheme of 10,000 vouchers a month, each worth $100, for holiday-makers, plus support payments for accommodation businesses that have bed nights cancelled, are included in the plan.

The raft of measures would be on standby and triggered by restrictions that cut a business venue capacity by at least 50 per cent.

SA is under Level 2 restrictions, capping venue capacity at one person per 2sq m.

Opposition treasury spokesman Stephen Mullighan urged the state government to push Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to reinstate a wage subsidy program, similar to JobKeeper or JobSeeker.

During SA’s seven-day lockdown last month, the state government announced one-off cash grants of up to $3000 for struggling small and medium-sized businesses.

Originally published as SA’s border reopening to western regional Victoria on hold after lockdown